CENTRAL
RAILWAY
O/o FA&CAO,
III
Floor, N.A. Building
MUMBAI CST- 400 001.
No:
AC/PEN/NEW PENSION /JOINT POO No. Date:
Sub: DRAFT
Joint POO for Implementation of
New Pension System
in Govt. /Railways- JOINT POO NO. PEN/ 3 / 2004.
Ref: Board’s
letter No. 1. F(E)III/2003/PN1/24 dated 31/12/03 and
2. No:
2002/ac-ii/21/1 dated 27-02-04.
Board
vide letter under reference have advised that the New
Defined Contributory Pension System
introduced by the Govt. is applicable to all Central Govt. services except Armed Forces who join Govt.
services on or after 01-01-2004 and the New Pension system will come into force
w.e.f. 01-01-2004. Consequent upon
introduction of the New Pension System in Railways, it is considered necessary
to issue this Joint Procedure Office Order No. 3 /2004 for the benefit of dealing staff and officers for ensuring proper
maintenance of records , timely recovery of Pension Contributions,
posting and reconciliation of Pension Fund Ledgers and transfer of balances to regular Pension Fund Regulatory
Development Authorities when they are formed.
1. 0 Salient Features of the New
Pension System:
1.1 New Pension System is a defined contributory pension system that
offers the participants basket of Pension Choices allowing transfer of the benefits in case of change of
employment. The New Pension System comes into force w.e.f.
01-01-2004. All railway servants who
enter railway services on or after 01-01-2004 are compulsorily covered by this
system. The existing SRPF/GPF, Pension,
Commutation and Extra Ordinary Pension Rules are not applicable to the new
entrants who are covered by this New
Pension System. There are two tiers in
the system. i.e. Tier-I and Tier-II which are
explained below:-.
1.2
Tier-1 pension account:
Tier-I is a non withdrawable pension
account to which employees joining railway service on or after 01-01-04 shall compulsorily contribute at the rate of
10% of Basic Pay + D.A , commencing
from the month following the month of joining, and matching contribution will
be made by the Govt . Interest at the
rate applicable to GPF (which is presently 8%) is also payable on the
contributions. The contributions and
the investment returns thereon shall be credited to the deposit of pension Tier-I account. No withdrawal is permissible from the
amount contributed to Tier-1 account till exit. At exit , the individual has to compulsorily invest part of the
pension wealth to purchase an
annuity from an IRDA regulated life
insurance company which will provide for
the pension to the employee and his/her spouse/dependant parents at the
time of retirement. The balance
amount in pension wealth will be payable to the employee at exit. The amount which is mandatory for the
employee to invest from pension wealth to Purchase the annuity mentioned above is as under:
1.
At exit at or on attaining 60 years of
age : 40% of pension wealth.
2.
At exit – before attaining 60 years of age: 80%
of pension wealth.
1.3
Investment Options:
There are three types of investment options available for the
employee to choose from viz. Option ‘A’, ‘B’ & ‘C’. Option – ‘A’: would imply pre-dominant investment in fixed income instruments
and some investment in equity.
Option- ‘B’: would imply
pre-dominant investment in equity and some in fixed income. Option – ‘C’: would imply almost equal
investment in fixed income instrument and
equity .
1.4 Tier-II
- account:
Tier-II is a withdrawable account and is optional. The
employee may contribute voluntarily to Tier-II of the account. The employee may withdraw either a
part or whole of the amount contributed to Tier-II of account at any time. This account does not constitute pension
investment and would attract no special tax treatment. There will no contribution from Govt. to
Tier-II account. Tier II is not
operative during the interim period ie. Till the formation of regular PFRDA.
1.5 Management of Pension Fund under New
Pension System:
For implementing the New Pension System
and management of the Pension Fund, Central Record Keeping Agency and several
Pension Fund Managers (PFMs) will be created.
As an interim measure , Central Pension Accounting Office
(CPAO)/Ministry of Finance will
function as Central Record keeping Agency, till statutory Pension Fund
Regulatory Development Authority (PFRDA) is established .
2. 1. Submission of list of employees joined service on or
after 01-01-2004:
a)
The bill drawing
officer shall obtain the information from the employee immediately on joining service , in the prescribed format as per Annexure-I.
b)
A consolidated list of employees
who joined service during the month will be sent by the bill
drawing officer to the Associate
Accounts Officers by 7th
of the following month, in the
prescribed format as per Annexure-II.
. For example, the consolidated list of employees joined in
the Month of Jan’2004 will be sent to Associate Accounts Officer by 7th Feb’04.
This information will be sent to PF section of the Associate Accounts Office for
allotment of unique Pension Account Number.
Annexure-I will be retained by the bill drawing officer and pasted in
the SR of the employee.
c)
The permanent accounting units viz.
divisions/workshop/HQ offices will be the nominated Associate Accounts
Offices for this system and the project railways/constructions offices will
be attached to the respective divisional
accounts office under whose jurisdiction such project / construction
offices are situated.
|
Project/Construction
Offices |
Associate
Accounts Office |
|
FA&CAO(C)CSTM,
DY. FA&CAO(C ) DR, SAO(C)PNVL,MTP/MUMBAI, FA&CAO(CON)DCAC/MUMBAI |
FA&CAO(HQ)CSTM. |
|
SAO(C)PA |
SR.DFM/PUNE |
|
SAO(C)BSL |
SR. DFM/BSL |
|
SAO(C)SUR |
DFM/SUR. |
The
above list is not exhaustive but only illustrative.
These offices after passing of salary bills
will transfer the salary debits/credits to the concerned accounting units through
transfer certificate after/for
accountal against relevant work/expenditure head of account. The contributions will be transferred to
the associate accounts office
through transfer certificate , who will
accept the credit and book it under K-Deposit and advances against the detailed
head of allocation as detailed at para 2.9.
2.2
Allotment of unique Permanent
Pension Account Number:
a) On receipt of the information in form
Annexure-II from the bill drawing officers, the PF section of the Associate Accounts Office will allot
a unique 16 digit Pension Account Number as under:-
The
first 4 digit will represent the
calendar year in which the
number is allotted. 5 th digit is fixed one representing the code for the
Ministry of Railways, which is ‘5’.
6th to 8th digit represents the zone/railway code
allotted to the railway in FMIS System.
The code allotted for C.Rly is ‘001’.
9th to 11th digit represents 3 digit unit
code. Precede the two digit accounting unit
code allotted with a zero to arrive at .
The unit code for HQ in this case is ‘001’. 12th to 16th digit represents the running serial number
allotted to the employee by the Associate Accounting Officer. This number will be the running number for the
calendar year starting from 1 (00001)
from January to December and it will be initialised to 1(00001) at the
commencement of next calendar year.
For example the number assigned to the first
employee of HQ /C.Rly., in the year 2004 will be
“2004500100100001”
where
-
2004 is the calendar Year in which the number is allotted
-
5 is the permanent code allotted to
Ministry of Railways
-001 is the Railway code allotted to C.Rly in
FMIS system
-
001 is the Accounting Unit code for HQ (
the two digit unit code prefixed with 0
to make it three digit unit code)
-
00001 is the running serial number allotted to the employee during the calendar
year (
Necessary changes required in the
AFRES/FMIS system may be incorporated for this purpose, so that the unique number may be auto generated by the system on entering the
particulars of the employee for opening of a new Pension Ledger Account..
Sr. System manager will tie up with FI-Sofex personnel for necessary
action and AFA(PF) will co-ordinate with Sr. System Manager in this
regard. Till computerization, a manual New Pension Ledger Account Number Allotment Register may be opened for
monitoring the continuity of the number allotted and ensuring that no duplicate
numbers are allotted.
b) After allotment of the unique Pension Account number, the
particulars of name, designation, unique Pension Account Number allotted etc.,
will be entered in an Index Register which will be maintained in the
prescribed format as per Annexure-III.
A Pension Ledger Account
will also be opened for the individual employee in the format as per Annexure-VI for posting the contributions, etc.
c) The unique Pension Account Number allotted
to the individual will be mentioned against the name of the employee in the
Annexure-II received from the bill drawing officer and a photo copy of the statement, duly
incorporating the Pension Account Number, will be returned to the bill drawing
officer by the Associate Accounts Officer by 10th of each month. The Index Register and Pension Ledger
Accounts will be maintained by the Associate Accounts Officers viz.
divisional/workshop/HQ offices.
d) The bill drawing officer, on receipt of the
photo copy of the statement , shall
communicate the unique Pension Account
Number allotted to the railway servant
concerned and also note the same in the Pay Bill Register.
e) The unique 16 digit Pension Account Number is a permanent number allotted to the
employee. Whenever the employee is
transferred he shall carry the number
along with him/her and the unique Pension Account Number will invariably be shown in the LPC both in words
and figures.
2.3
Submission of the list of
Pension Account Number allotted:
a) The list of railway servants to whom unique
Pension Account Numbers are allotted in the month shall be consolidated by the
Associate Accounts Officer of PF
section in the prescribed format as per
Annexure-II A and sent to
FA&CAO , who is the nodal officer for the system for reporting to CPAO , by 12th of each month. This
information will be received and
consolidated by PF Section in the prescribed format as per Annexure-IIB
for submission to the CPAO. Efficiency
Section will ensure that the consolidated list, duly signed by is sent to the nominated officer in CPAO, by
15th of the same month. A copy of the list should also be
endorsed to Railway Board, till further orders.
2.4
Recoveries of Contributions:
a) Recoveries
towards the contribution to
tier-I pension account shall be effected from the 1st of the
month following the month in which the
railway servant joined services. No
deduction shall be made from the salary of the month of joining.
b) As the employees joining Govt. services on
or after 1-1-2004 are not covered by SRPF/GPF rules, no recovery will be
made towards PF. In case any
recovery towards PF /VPF subscription has been made ( in respect of Gaz.
Officers who have joined services on or after 01-01-2004 ) the same has to be
adjusted against the compulsory pension contribution and credited to tier-1 of Pension account by means of a J.V. Similarly and any amount remaining unadjusted shall be refunded to the employee
immediately and the PF account of such
employees should be closed forthwith and no further recoveries towards
PF/VPF should be effected.
c) The system of voluntary contribution to
tier-II will not be operative during
this interim arrangement and therefore
no deductions on this account shall be made till further orders.
d)
For the purpose of effecting recovery
of contributions to Pension Fund and
reconciliation , the bill
drawing officer shall maintain separate Pay Bill Registers and prepare
separate pay bills for the employees joining service on or after
01-01-2004. Separate pay bills along
with schedules will be sent to the Associate bill passing Accounts Officer, as
per salary bill programme in
vogue. The bill drawing officer shall prepare the
recovery schedule in duplicate in the prescribed format as per Annexure-IV
for the contributions under tier-I and attach them with the pay bills.
e) Along with the salary bill for the railway
servants who have joined service on or
after 1-1-2004, the bill drawing
officer shall also prepare a separate bill for drawl of matching
contributions to be paid by the Government and creditable to the pension
account, which will be supported by accompanying schedules (in duplicate) in the prescribed format as per Annexure-V. The amount of matching govt. contribution shall be debited to the respective
demands for grants under PU –‘08’ (for working expenses) and PU -‘18’
(for CapitalWorks expenditure)
crediting the head
‘00834202’ as detailed at para 2.9 and not against Demand No.13.
f) On receipt of salary bills accompanied by the schedules from the bill
drawing officer, the Associate bill Passing Accounts officer shall exercise
usual checks before passing the bill and making payments. After the payment is made, one set of
schedules relating to pension contribution shall be detached from the pay bill
and passed on to the section
responsible (i.e. PF section )
for posting credits of contributions in the ledger account of the
Railway Servant.
g) The PF section of the Associate Accounts
Office will be the section responsible
for maintaining the Pension Ledger Accounts of the employees joining service on
or after 01-01-2004. The employee’s
contribution under tier –I and tier – II , Govt. contribution under tier-I,
etc., will be posted from the checked Pension Fund Journals by the PF section
in the individual Pension Fund Ledger Account of the employee in different
column in the prescribed format as per Annexure-VI and the total thereof
reconciled with the General Books.
One ledger folio may be allotted for each individual so that posting for
two/four consecutive years can be
posted in one ledger for the employee.
Due care should be taken to keep the Pension Ledger Accounts of the
employees covered by New Pension system
distinctly, without mixing them
with PF ledger Accounts of employees joined prior to 01-01-2004..
2.5 Submission of list of recoveries of contributions to FA&CAO / CPAO.
a) The Associate Accounts Officer of PF
section of the accounting unit , shall consolidate the information of
the Pension Fund Journals received from
various drawing officers and forward
the same in the prescribed format as per Annexure-VII to FA& CAO (PF) HQ, by 12th of the month following
the month to which the credit pertains.
If no recovery is there, due to the employee being on LWP and no pay is
drawn, the same has to be mentioned in
the remark column of the Annexure. FA&CAO
shall consolidate the information received from various Associate Accounts
Officers and send the same to the CPAO in the prescribed format as
per Annexure-VII A by 15th of the month
both in hard and soft form, endorsing a copy to Board’s office. No accounts will however be transferred to CPAO by the Associate Accounts
Officers/FA&CAO. Detailed
instructions regarding transfer of balances will be issued after the appointment of regular CRA
(Central Record Keeping Agency) and PFMs (Pension Fund Managers). CPAO on receipt of this information will
update its database and generate exception report for missing credits,
mismatch, etc. which will be sent to FA&CAO concerned, who will also
generate similar exception report, match the same with the report received from CPAO before advising the units concerned for taking necessary action.
2. 6
Transfer of Railway Servants:
a) In case a railway servant is transferred
from one accounting unit to another,
the balance will not be transferred. However, the bill drawing officer shall indicate in the LPC of
the individual the unique Pension Account Number allotted to the employee (the
Pension Account Number being the permanent number allotted to the
employee) and the month upto which the
Railway servant’s contributions and Govt. contributions have been transferred to the Pension
Fund. A copy of the LPC, duly
mentioning the Staff Number and Pension Account Number shall invariably be sent
to FA&CAO(PF) for
information. The staff number
and Pension Account Number should be mentioned in words also to avoid wrong
interpretation of numbers 3 as 8 or 0 or vice versa. For example the staff number 08008826 shall be spelt in words
within brackets as (Zero Eight Zero Zero Eight Eight Two Six).
2.7 Annual
Statement of Pension Contributions:
a)
At the end of the financial year ( Apr-Mar) , the CPAO will prepare an annual
statement showing the details of deductions and contributions made by the Govt.
and also interest allowed by the govt. and forward it through
FA&CAO/Associate Accounts Officer to the
Drawing Officers where the Railway servant is presently working, to give
the same to him. After the close of
the financial year, CPAO shall also report the detail of the balance Accounting
unit wise to each FA&CAO, who will forward the information to each Accounts
Officer concerned for the purpose of reconciliation.
2.8
In case of Death
of the railway servant
a) No withdrawal is permissible during the
interim arrangement. However, in the
event of death of the Railway servant, the accumulations under Tier-I will be paid to his/her
spouse/dependant parents as per nomination.
The fact of death of the railway servant shall be intimated to
FA&CAO by 5th of the following month for information. The rules of nomination and to whom the
amount is to be paid in the absence of
nomination shall be advised later, on receipt of instructions from CPAO/
Rly.Board for which a reference has already been made.
2.9
Allocation of contributions and expenditure
i)All the credits on account of
contributions and interest on contributions
shall be credited to Major Head K-
Deposit & Advances – Other Deposits- Bearing Interest. The detailed allocations proposed for this purpose are as under: -
Allocation Description
00834201 -
Employee’s compulsory contribution to tier-I
00834202
- Matching Govt. Contribution to
tier-I
00834203
- Interest on contributions to tier – I of New Pension system-
(Credits).
ii) The
expenditure on account of
Matching govt. Contribution shall be debited to the respective demands under the primary unit ‘08’ (for working expenses) and ‘18’ (for
Capital/Works Exp.) and not against
Demand No.13. For example, Matching govt. contribution to tier-1 of the
employee of GM’s office whose salary is debitable to the head ’03 211 01’ will
be allocated as under:-
Description Allocation Amt.
Matching Govt Contribution credited to Pen. Fund. Cr. 00834202…… X
Matching
Govt. Contribution to tier-1 Dr. 03 211 08 … X
iii) The interest payable on contributions
shall be debited to the newly
introduced Major Head – 2049 – Interest on Other Obligation- Interest and allocated to ‘00204901’
-
interest on contributions to tier I
Will be debited
and credited as under:
Int.
Paid on contributions to tier-1 of Pension A/c Dr. 00204901 ….Y
Interest on Contributions to tier 1 (Credits) Cr. 00834203 …. .Y
2.10
Officers responsible for the system to correspond with CPAO/FA&CAO etc.
In FA&CAO’s office , FA&CAO will be the nodal officer and Dy.
CAO(G) will be the officer in-charge at HQ office responsible for this system
to correspond with the office of CPAO.
In the Associate Accounts Office, the officer in-charge of the divisional/Workshop accounting
unit i.e. Sr.DAO/DAO/WAO/AWAO will be responsible for this system to correspond with FA&CAO/DY. CAO(G) and timely submission of returns to
FA&CAO. Each bill drawing officer
will be responsible for the system and
for timely submission of the various information required to be submitted
to the Associate Accounts Officers.
2.11 Budget Provision: As the expenditure on Govt. contributions
are debitable to the respective demands, the personnel department
concerned will be responsible for assessing and seeking budget grant under the
relevant grant/PU. Procedure regarding
calculation of interest and budget
provision for interest will be advised
later.
2.12Calendar of returns:
For ensuring timely submission of the various returns in this
regard, these returns may be incorporated in the Calendar of returns and timely submission of the returns
monitored.
2.13Duty
list of Accounts and Bill Units for the implementation of the Scheme is as
under :
|
Summarized Duty List /Responsibilities of Personnel/Accounts Deptt for New pension system |
|
|
Personnel
Department |
Accounts
Department (PF Section) |
|
1.Obtaining
information from the employee in form Annexure-I, immediately on
joining service and allotment of 8 digit staff number, as per the practice in
vogue. 2. Consolidating the list of employees joined during the
month in form Annexure-II and submit
to AFA(PF) of Associate Accounts Office
by 7th of the following month to which it relates, for
allotment of Permanent Pension Account Number. 3. Communicating the Pension Number allotted to the
employee concerned and noting the same in Pay Bill Register.(after receipt of
photocopy of Annexure-II from Accounts office) 4. Maintenance of Separate Pay Bill Register
for the employees covered by New Pension System for posting and
reconciliation of contributions recovered. 5.
Preparation Separate Salary
Bills for recovery of compulsory pension contribution together with schedule
in duplicate in form Annexure-IV for the contributions under tier-1 and preparation of separate bill and schedule for drawal of matching Govt. contribution in form Annexure-V and submission of the same to the
Associate Bill Passing Officer, as per
salary programme. 6. In case of transfer of the employee, mentioning the Permanent Pension Account Number allotted to the employee (both
in words and figures) in the LPC and endorsing a copy of LPC to PF section of the Associate Accounts
Office and FA&CAO(PF)HQ for information. 7. Handing over
of the annual statement of Pension Contributions Account received from the
Bill Passing Officer to the employee concerned. 8. Making budget
provisions for the matching Govt. contributions under the respective demands for
grants . (This wil be done by HQRS of
personnel Branch for entire Railway).l 9. Ensuring timely
submission of the returns to the authorities concerned as stated above. |
1. Allot Permanent Pension Account Number to the
employee and return a photo copy of Annexure-II , duly mentioning the number
allotted to the individual employee by 10th of each month . 2. Maintenance
of Pension Account Ledger of employees, Index Register. 3. Internal Check
of Pay Bills received and making payments. 4. Bill Passing Sections shall forward one
copy of the recovery schedules ( i.e Pension Fund Journals) , after internal
check, to PF Section that maintains
the Pension Ledger Accounts of the individual railway servant for the purpose
of posting and reconciliation . 5. Posting the
individual Pension Fund Ledger Account ( maintained in form Annexure –VII )
and reconciling with General Books. 6. Consolidation of Pension Fund Journals received in form Annexure-VII to FA&CAO(PF) HQ
by 12th of the month following the month to which the report
relates. 7. Consolidation
of the reports received from all
Associate Accounts Officers and submission of the consolidated report
in form Annexure-VII A to CPAO/NEW DELHI by 15th of each month. 8. Forwarding of
the Annual Statement of the pension contribution of the employees received
from CPAO to Associate Accounts Officer.
9. Forwarding the
annual statement of accounts received from CPAO/FA&CAO to the bill drawing officer where the employee is
currently working for handing over to
the employee concerned. 10. Ensuring timely submission of the returns to the
authorities concerned, as stated above. |
3 Changes to be effected in AFRES-FMIS System: Following changes are required to be
carried out in AFRES:
1.
Screen for opening of
New Pension Ledger Account – to be provided to PF section.
The existing system of allotment of Staff number will continue and this will be
the primary key for linking with PRIME. On entering the staff-code, the screen
will display the columns for the particulars to be entered. When the
entries confirmed by the user,
system should auto generate the Permanent Pension Account number (only for the
employee who has joined service on or after 01-01-2004.
2.
Screen for entering the
transfer in cases.
In case
of the employees transferred to the unit from another
accounting unit, the Pension Account
Number allotted by the appointing unit/railway will be retained, the same being
permanent pension account numbers allotted to the employee and no fresh number
will be generated. The system shall get
the information of Staff Number and Pension Account Number as input.
3.
Screen for entering Transfer Out /Closure
cases: -
Similarly
, screen for transfer outward /closure
cases shall also be provided and
the status should be updated to indicating the railway/accounting unit to which
the employee is transferred or the
reason for closure (as the case may be ) and the month upto which the
contributions have been recovered and transferred to CPAO.
4.
Screen for generating
various exception reports –
i.e.List
of Pension Account Numbers for which
there is no contribution, mis-match numbers,
reconciliation with books,
etc. These reports will be similar to
the reports generated by PF section for
posting and reconciliation of PF recoveries.
5.
screen for
consolidating and /or generating
various reports required to be submitted
to FA&CAO/CPAO.-
This screen is to be provided to Efficiency
section. The information received from
various units in hard / soft copy may
be either ported/entered using this screen so that a consolidated report may be
submitted to CPAO, in the prescribed
format.
6.
Screen for passing
withdrawals from tier-2 when the same becomes operative.
System should check that the amount passed
is not in excess of the amount to the credit of tier-2 account. Option to pass
the amount should be provided to PF
accounts Section with pass-word protection.
7.
Screen for generating deduction
statement of contributions indicating the Pension Account Number – to be
provided in PRIME for bill passing sections.
The Pension Account Number of the employee
should also be linked through the staff code /number of the employee and the
Pension Account Number should be reflected in all the Salary Bills and its accompanying
schedules/recovery statements etc.for the employees covered by the New Pension
System, which will be prepared separately.
Sr. System Manager may ensure that
necessary changes required in this
regard are carried out at the earliest .
Sr.AFA(PF) and Sr.AFA(EG)/AFA(ENG) will co-ordinate with Sr. System
Manager in this regard.
Till
computerization, manual ledgers may be
maintained for posting and reconciliation
purposes. Pension Account Ledgers
required for the purpose may be got
printed from SPS/BYC immediately as per the prescribed format (Annexure-VI).
4. Name and address of the nodal officers in
CPAO’s Office are as under:-
1.Name: Smt. Vandana Sharma,
Designation : Chief Controller (Pensions),
Address : Central Pension Accounts Office,
Trikoot-II, Bhikaji Cama Place,
New Delhi-110 0066.
Phone : 26169405,
26174864 FAX: 26167326 E-Mail: cccpao.nic.in
2. Name : Shri. Sunhari Lal,,
Designation : Controller of Accounts,
Address : Central Pension Accounts Office,
Trikoot-II, Bhikaji Cama Place,
New Delhi-110 0066.
Phone : 26174809
This issues with the approval
of FA&CAO and CPO.
(Mrs.
RITA P HEMRAJANI)
(R. SAHAI)
DY. CPO(HQ) DY.
CAO(G)